Rose Garden
A stained-glass installation transformed the view from a shaft-facing window, into a medieval courtyard with a rose garden. This site-specific is located in a private apartment at a Gothic Revival building on the Upper West Side in New York City. This piece is a continuation of the Roses project: an iconographic system that represents a person’s romantic life as a diagram, shaped like a rose bush.
Rose Garden, installation view, permanent display, New York City, 2021
Rose Garden depicts a medieval courtyard that is an allegory of a union— between a loving couple and between kingdoms: Two rose bushes at the center represent the love of a couple; The surrounding twelve Tudor roses represent the reunion of the twelve tribes of Israel, that were separated and exiled from the Kingdom of Israel after its conquest by the Assyrian Empire (circa 722 BCE); The two lower Tudor roses, with their heraldic shields, represent the tribes of Judah and Benjamin—the two tribes that are believed to be the origin of Jewish people; The ten Tudor roses at the top represent the ten lost tribes; The two crowns symbolize the sovereignty of each kingdom under this reunion.
Roses Garden, permanent display at a private apartment located in UWS, New York City. 8 stained glass windows, 108 x 72" total, 2021
The rose bushes in the middle are based on two love questionnaires from the Roses project, filled by a husband and wife. Each element of the diagram symbolizes a specific event in one’s romantic relationships, as well as future hopes and dreams.
Rose Garden, detail
The stained glass was made with the medieval stained glass technique of Grisaille. Each piece of the 'puzzle' was painted separately using black and amber and then burnt in a kiln. All the parts were then connected with lead, attached to the window frames, and installed for a permanent display
This commission was created with Meislin Projects, in collaboration with
MATEI LLC – Studio for Architecture & Design